Montana mother turned to homeschooling after teacher restrained disabled son 

A Montana mother says she decided against sending her disabled son back to public school after a teacher held him against the floor.

White Sulphur Springs resident Katherine Walter now homeschools her 11-year-old son, Will. He has autism and apraxia, a condition that makes speaking difficult, The Associated Press reported.

“I never set out to homeschool my kids,” Walter said. “But we needed the school to say they would never restrain a child to the floor again.”

Walter started homeschooling her son in kindergarten because of staffing concerns. She considered sending him back to public school for first grade, but the incident happened during a school visit before his planned return.

She says a teacher pulled Will from under a table and pinned him against the floor.

The teacher tells a different story. She says Will hit her and held an object near her face. She grabbed his wrists and followed him to the floor. His mother says the object was an iPad, which he uses to communicate with others.

The county attorney said nothing illegal happened, but the teacher worsened the situation.

The family sued the district and received a $40,000 settlement in 2025. The district did not admit any wrongdoing. Its superintendent told The Associated Press that the district began teaching staff how to de-escalate tense situations.

Walter has since become a school choice advocate.

In January, she spoke at a school choice rally at the Montana Capitol. She said education savings accounts helped her older son get services outside public school.

Her younger son, Will, did not qualify because he had already left public school. His older brother, who has a different learning disorder, qualified for assistance.

Walter told KPAX that the money helped cover tutoring and trips for therapy. She also joined the state committee that helped write the program’s rules.

“I was passionate about being involved because I wanted to make that process easy for the families,” she said.

Montana lawmakers created the accounts in 2023 to help families of children with disabilities pay for nonpublic school education.

Disability Rights Montana and the Montana Quality Education Coalition sued to block the program. They say it diverts money from public schools. They oppose a rule requiring parents to forfeit their child’s right to school-provided services to receive the money.

Last December, Judge Mike Menahan ruled that lawmakers did not properly establish the program. He said they created it without setting aside the necessary funding. The state has appealed the ruling.

Montana also eased homeschooling regulations last year.

Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a law giving homeschools their own rules, separate from those private schools must follow.

The law, House Bill 778, no longer requires homeschool families to keep their children’s vaccine records or share them with school officials. It also eliminated rules concerning the safety of buildings where children learn.

“HB 778 strengthens education freedom in Montana by ensuring home schools are recognized and treated as a separate, self-directed form of education,” Frontier Institute President Kendall Cotton said in a statement. “This bill builds on Montana’s strong existing home schooling laws to protect homeschool families from undue government intrusion.”

Parents still have to notify local school officials each year if they homeschool their children. They must also keep attendance records, teach required subjects and provide the required number of instructional hours, as Heartlander News previously reported.

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/AssociatedPress)